Self-unloading bin



Jan. 14, 1941. w. H. TAYLOR SELF-UNLOADING BIN Filed July 9 INVENTOR. WH-LIAM H. T vLora ATTORNEYS Patented Jan. 14, 1941 UNITED STATES 2,228,421 SELF-UNLOADING BIN William H. Taylor, Waukesha, Wis., assignor to The Vilter Manufacturing Company, Milwaukee, Wis., a corporation of Wisconsin Application July 9, 1938, Serial No. 218,343

9 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in selfunloading bins.

Various materials, and particularly ice, tend to cohere when stored in bins. The present invention has for its principal object the provision of a novel means whereby the particles of stored material frozen or otherwise adhering to each other, may be dislodged and fed gradually to the discharge spout without damage to the bin and with only a slight degree of pulverization or disintegration of the particles of material.

The ordinary effort to dislodge the adhering particles mechanically results in cavitation near the bottom of the bin, so that the material subsequently dislodged from the upper portion of the bin falls with great momentum to the bottom of the bin, sometimes occasioning serious damage. More particularly stated, therefore, it is an object of the present invention to piovide an arrangement whereby the material discharged through the bottom of the bin will betaken progressively from the top of the material stored in the bin without producing cavitation.

Other objects of the invention will appear more particularly from the following disclosure.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 is a view in axial section showing a storage bin equipped with my invention.

Figure 2 is an enlarged detail view of the special chain construction preferably employed.

Figures 3 and 4 are views similar to Figure 1 on a reduced scale showing modified embodiments of the invention.

The bin 5 is generally conventional, being provided at its bottom with a discharge spout 6 and having a manhole at I, normally covered by closure 8, through which the material to be stored is placed in the bin.

In accordance with the present invention a shaft l0, preferably tubular, is rotatably mounted centrally of the bin. It may conveniently be provided with a lower bearing 'II in the discharge spout and a top bearing l2 in the top wall of the bin. A motor l5 drives shaft l0 through a change speed reducer set l6 and the bevel gear-s l1 and I8.

At its lower end the shaft I0 is preferably, though not necessarily, provided with a screw at I9 which not only facilitates the discharge of dislodged material through the spout 6, but also tends to control the rate of such discharge.

The tool or element used to dislodge the material from the bin preferably is flexible and may constitute a chain such as that shown at 20. It may be connected to the shaft I0 near thelower end thereof by means of an anchorage 2|. The upper end of the chain is preferably yieldable with respect to the shaft and this objective is preferably achieved by connecting the upper end of the chain to a weight 22 which is vertically reciprocable in the interior of the tubular shaft ID to draw the excess chain into the shaft when the shaft is not in operation. The chain issues from the shaft through an opening provided at 23 and runs over a guide which, in this instance, may constitute a pulley 24.

I preferably provide a stop which may constitute a bolt 25 extending transversely of the tubular shaft to limit the upward movement of the Weight 22, thereby restricting the catenary of the chain to a curve such that the intermediate portion of the chain will not under any circumstances contact the wall of the bin. The chain is preferably made up of links such as those shown at 26 in Fig. 2, each link, or certain links, being provided with projecting pegs 2'! which constitute tools for dislodging the material stored in the bin.

A supplemental flexible dislodging element 30 may also be provided if desired. In Fig. 1 the supplemental element likewise comprises a chain connected at 31 with chain 20, and connected at its upper end to an anchor 32 carried by the shaft Ill.

The shaft ID will ordinarily be stationary during thefillingof the bin 5. Consequently the weight 22 will be low in the shaft and most or all of the excess length of the flexible element comprising chain 20 will be drawn into the interior of the shaft, leaving the exposed portion of such element stretched parallel to the shaft along the outside surface thereof. The bin may be filled, for example, to the level indicated by the dotted line at 33. Some portion of the flexible element 20 will lie above the top surface of the material in' the bin, and a substantial portion of the supplemental element 30 will be above the level of material in the bin. 1

When it is desired to unload the bin the initial movement of the shaft will tend to cause the intermediate part of the flexible element 20 to wind itself about the shaft. The ice or other material immediately adjacent the shaft will be dislodged and will tend to move downwardly along the shaft and be discharged under control of the screw l8 through the spout 6. As the rate of operation of the shaft l8 increases-the exposed portion of the chain will be thrown outwardly by centrifugal force into the free space at the top of the bin above the level of the material therein.

The form and extent of the catenary projection of the flexible chain or other element will depend materially on the amount of free space in the top of the bin and the rate of shaft rotation. The supplemental element 30, being largely in the clear and having no tension imposed upon it, will fly out to the approximate form shown in Fig. 1, and will soon dislodge all the material from the top of the bin, the dislodged material falling downwardly along the shaft to the hopper. The main discharging element 20, being subject to tension, will tend to remain wrapped at its intermediate portion about the shaft, and such slack as it develops will originate at the top, being fed through the opening 23 from the interior of the shaft. Consequently the upper part of the flexible element 20 will be the first to bow outwardly during the rotation of the shaft, and not until the bin is almost empty will the element 20 assume its full catenary position indicated in Fig. 1.

It is important to note that the dislodging elements 20 and 30 do not carve or cut the material from the bin. It is frequently undesirable that the particles in the bin should be ground or pow dered or reduced in size. Instead of acting on the ice or other material with a carving or cutting action which would reduce the same to a powder, the flexibility of elements 20 and 30 leads them to bound from point to point in the course of their rotation, so that they strike only intermittently upon the surfaces of the stored material. At each impact they Will dislodge a considerable part of such material and then rebound toward the center of the bin against the centrif-' ugal force which will later project the dislodging elements outwardly to their full extent for another impact upon the stored material.

Due to the fact that the only material dislodged at the lower part of the bin is that material immediately adjacent the shaft, it will be apparent that there can under .no circumstances be a free fall downwardly through the bin of material dislodged at the top thereof. In actual operation the material at the top of the bin is the first to be dislodged (except for that immediately adjacent the shaft), and thereafter the feed is progressively from the top of whatever material remains in the bin. The opening adjacent the shaft acts continuously as a throat to govern the flow downwardly through the bin of the material dislodged from the upper surface of the stored particles.

In the construction shown in Figs. 3 and 4 the use of a weight or equivalent tensioning means is omitted. Many of the advantages of this invention can be achieved through providing the shaft ID!) with a series of flexible work-dislodging elements 200, having a common strand 20l connecting them with the shaft Hi as suggested in Fig. 4, or independently connected to the shaft in staggered relation as shown at 202, 203 and 204 in Fig. 3.

I claim:

1. In a device of the character described, the combination with a bin, of an upright shaft extending centrally therethrough and a flexible work-dislodging member connected at spaced points with said shaft to turn therewith, said member being free intermediate said points to assume a catenary projecting radially of said shaft, and means for rotating the shaft at a speed such as to project said member centrifugally to dislodge material stored in the bin about the shaft.

2. In a device of the character described, the combination with a bin having a discharge throat at its bottom, of a shaft extending centrally through said bin and provided at its lower end with means controlling discharge through said throat and a flexible member connected at vertically spaced points to said shaft and intermediately free of said shaft to assume a catenary projecting radially from the shaft, and means for rotating the shaft at such, a speed as to project said member centrifugally to dislodge material stored in said bin for discharge through said throat.

3. In a device of the character described, the combination with a bin having a discharge spout adjacent its bottom, of flexible means for dislodging material in the bin, said means extending from top to bottom of the bin and having its in termediate portion free to be distended on a catenary curve by centrifugal force to sweep the contents from the bin, rotatable means journaled in the top and bottom of the bin to which said flexible means is connected at its ends, and mechanism for rotating said rotatable means at a rate to project the intermediate portion of said flexible means centrifugally.

4. A device of the character described, comprising the combination with a shaft and a slack flexible element connected at one end with said shaft, of means for rotating the shaft and means connecting the other end of said element under tension yieldably with said shaft for rotation therewith.

5. In adevice of the character described, the combination with a shaft, of a flexible element having a connection with said shaft, means for yieldably tensioning said element with respect to said shaft, whereby normally to take up the slack thereof, and mechanism for rotating the shaft at a suflicient rate to project its slack centrifugally to a caternary path divergent from said shaft in opposition to said tensioning means.

6. In a device of the character described, the combination with a bin having a discharge spout, of a tubular shaft having one end adjacent said spout and another end adjacent the top of the bin, said shaft being provided with an opening adjacent said last mentioned end, a flexible element connected with the shaft adjacent the flrst mentioned end thereof and extending through said opening to the interior of the shaft, means within the shaft yieldably tensioning said element, and mechanism for rotating said shaft at a rate to cause centrifugal distention of said element.

'7. A device of the character described, comprising a bin having a discharge spout and bottom in combination with a shaft having its lower end adjacent said spout and its upper end adjacent the top of the bin and provided with an opening, a flexible element connected with said shaft near the spout and extending through said opening, means within the shaft for yieldably tensioning said element, and a second element connected with the shaft and with the first element.

8. A device of the character described, comprising a bin'having a discharge spout and bottom in combination with a shaft having its lower end adjacent said spout and its upper end adjacent the top of the bin and provided with an opening, a flexible element connected with said shaft near the spout and extending through said opening, means within the shaft for yieldably tensioning adiacent said spout and its upper end adjacent.

the top of the bin and provided with an opening, a flexible element connected with said shaft near the spout and extending through said opening,

means within the shaft for yieldably tensioning said element, and a second element connected with the shaft and with the first element, said shaft having guide means at said opening for accommodating the movement of the slack of said element in and at said opening responsive to the operation of said tensioning means thereon, said first element comprising a chain and said shaft having mechanism for its rotation at a rate to extend said chain centrifugally in opposition to 10 said tensioning means.

WILLIAM H. TAYLOR. 

